Black Slate Bside
by Liz M. J
Summary: This bitter man's most grievous fault, and his Raven swansong on what might have been. The B-side Story: the vicarious, stand-by one. Infinity of Destinies: you posit one, and this is what you retain. The forgotten, forbidden, forsaken and - forgiven? My Rough Diamond.
1. Erase Everything: Tabula Rasa

When the teenager sees the door opening, right before him, and that bitter man with blackened eyes towering over him, all he thinks is:  
'Oh, what?'  
Then the man grabs his shirt, with a hand blocks his mouth and brings him outside – a blow with one hand (the shirt one) on the nape is enough, the teenager loses conscience.  
The man and his peer pass through the window, jump down on the street and run away with him.  
The teenager hasn't even understood who they are, and what do they want from him.  
What the hell is happening?  
He wakes up in a dimly lighted place, something looking like a cave.  
There are many people around him.  
He sees the men who kidnapped him – they are sitting on the ground, legs put in X, they are not talking.  
One is the bitter man who opened the door.  
The other looks like a fish, and is really ugly.  
The teenager is so unaware of cold-minded-defense that he speaks aloud:  
"What am I doing here?"  
The bitter man turns to him and returns just:  
"Shut up."  
The teenager goes on talking:  
"This is not an answer. Wait, I didn't notice it – you've got the Sharingan! Like Sasuke…"  
"Mh mh. Now shut up."  
"You're cold as shit like him. Maybe worse. C'mon, you, where are we?"  
"Kisame… make him shut up."  
The fish-man replies:  
"Why don't you do – ok, I do, then I'll ask"  
The bitter man with the sharingan, black haired and with a face rather feminine, goes on looking seriously at the wall before him.  
It seems he doesn't give a damn about the teenager.  
The fish-man stands up and walks towards him. The teenager screams:  
"No no no, ok, ok, I'll shut up – calm down!"  
"BE. QUIET. We wouldn't lose anything in cutting off your tongue"  
He goes back to his place.  
The bitter man looks like he is neither listening nor hearing.  
The fish-man asks him in half voice:  
"You're still controlling your Kagebunshin?"  
No answer.

The teenager sits down, in silence, trying to understand where he is, who they are, and first of all what do they want from him.  
He looks around – this is actually a cave, there are few lights – just enough to see where you walk.  
The bitter man and the fish-man are before him, like 5 meters far, a bit on the right.  
On the left, nearly behind him, two other people are sitting always on the ground, looking like they don't do anything in particular.  
They are talking – a guy with blond quite impossible hair (the hair is loosen, but it's got a pony tail, and still a strand falls on his left eye) –  
'WAIT – on his hand – is there a mouth?  
Where the hell am I?'  
And the other is so strange that he looks more like a giant puppet than a human.  
The bitter man tells the wall, in half voice:  
"Oh, no. Hell. End."  
The fish-man asks him:  
"What? Your Kagebunshin? Oh, all right. You've stopped it"  
"Mh. Better so. What's up, you two? Can't you stop this? I was concentrating."  
The blond guy fires back, ironic:  
"Oh, SORRY, Mister Bitterness. We are arguing"  
"About what?"  
- asks the teenager, who heard the whole quarrel and didn't understand a thing.  
The fish-man turns around and stares at him angrily again.  
The teenager taps his mouth with the hand. The bitter man intervenes (but he's still watching the wall):  
"All right…let him talk. I've finished."  
The teenager immediately bursts out:  
"Ok, won't you tell me who you are?"  
The bitter man glances him straight in the eye and fires back:  
"Don't. Bother. Me."  
"Mister sympathy…"  
- comments the other, in half voice himself. So he turns to the blond guy and asks:  
"Who is him?"

The blond guy gazes at him puzzled:  
"You're stupid or intelligent?"  
The fish-man laughs:  
"He's stupid. However, tell him. In the end, he'll die. No risk, at all".  
"Why I'm dying?"  
The fish-man eyes him, puzzled and bewildered. Then he laughs:  
"Why not?"  
The teenager thinks aloud:  
"Where am I…?"  
The blond guy stares at him thinking, and then answers:  
"Ok, we're going to kill you. We're waiting for one of us to do part of the work. And he – "  
"WHY ARE YOU GOING TO KILL ME?"  
"It's not really for that. You'll die when we take out of you the demon"  
"Ah! I thought – no, wait – huh – the demon? Who are you?"  
The blond guy replies:  
"We are – "  
"Won't you shut up?"  
- intervenes the bitter man again.  
"Stop interrupting me! He'll die the same. He is Uchiha Ita…"  
Again the bitter man:  
"He'll die however. What use is to him? We should have cut off his tongue. We should do it now."  
The teenager:  
"I…"  
"So, sit down and stop palling!"  
His face looks like a piece of stone, but the voice tone is quite angry.  
The fish-man thinks this too, since he asks him:  
"What's up?"  
"He's too weak."  
The teenager 'thinks' a bit, and then says:  
"Wait – are you with Orochimaru?"  
The blond guy bursts out laughing – the teenager continues:  
"He never looked at me – I can't understand – but if he wants to use Sasuk-"


	2. Infinity of Destinies: you posit one

"He wants WHAT?"  
- the bitter man changes EVEN his glance, in getting angry and saying this. The teenager 'answers':  
"You're Uchiha… like him. You know Sasuke?"  
The bitter man stands up and walks to the teenager, grabs his collar ad lifts him from the ground:  
"What – does – he – want – from – Sasuke?"  
"I don't know if I understood…"  
The blond guy:  
"Yeeees … maybe … "  
The teenager goes on:  
"I – I think there's something about – I don't know – he made him a seal – and"  
The bitter man is white like a sheet in face, but gets paler at this word:  
"Seal – he wants to use him – why."  
"You neither use tone for questions, huh?"  
- says the fish-man freeing the teenager and putting him down:  
"Don't hurt him. He's funny"  
The blond guy interferes:  
"What difference then?"  
"If you hurt him, he'll get sad and won't be no more funny"  
The teenager was thinking of something totally different:  
"Sasuke wants to kill someone. He looks for power. I think he will go away – I don't want him to go. If you don't want him to be caught by Orochimaru – "  
The bitter man interrupts him:  
"He's going there with his own feet. I can't deter him from doing it."  
"But if he does, help me stopping him!

The fish-man returns:  
"You'll die tonight, you really don't want to get it, huh?"  
The teenager answers (to the bitter man):  
"… - So do it you. Stop him"  
Then he stops, looking down, sad. The fish-man comments:  
"I told you! Now he's no more funny!"  
"So cut his tongue off."  
- says the bitter man, with a voice tone like he was laughing. The teenager, angrily:  
"I guess you don't care, like him, huh? You're just like Sasuke"  
The bitter man doesn't answer.  
He turns his back to him and goes back, to sit where he was before.  
The teenager gets really upset. There' something beasty in his looks, when he shouts to his back:  
"WON'T YOU SIMPLY TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?"  
The bitter man stops and watches the wall, while the teenager continues -  
"You can stop him! Ok you're killing me – but why the demon? Why the demon? To do what? You are bad… I can … please… at least Sasuke…"  
The blond guy laughs again, spiteful:  
"Oh, he begs you to save his own friend – he's so craven. He pretends he doesn't understand that we're murderers enough – and with the Kyuubi…"  
"What? The Kyuubi what?"  
- asks the teenager, anxious.  
"We'll use it to kill so many people that it will be hard that someone survives to remember your friend"  
The teenager is baffled. He stares at the bitter man – still turned to the wall.  
Then he UNDERSTANDS – he sits down:  
"Better you don't think about Sasuke. You're bad"  
The bitter man returns:  
"You got it".  
He sits down too.

The teenager is angry, sad, worried, afraid. Angry more than everything.  
Angry – he thinks of this wrong, wrong thing, dangerous thing that is happening – of all the people out there.  
Then he ends up saying:  
"You really look like him. It's like y-"  
"He's my brother, ok?"  
The fish-man watches him, perplexed. The other explains:  
"At least he shuts up."  
The blond guy and the puppet-like one resume their argument, and the teenager now understands it was about art.  
Art? Here?  
After half an hour of complete stillness, the teenagers says:  
"I'm hungry…"  
"How can he stand you?"  
- the bitter man stands up and goes away. The teenager tells the fish-man:  
"You see? He's really totally like him. He's really similar to Sasuke…"  
The fish man reflects before speaking:  
"I thought he had no siblings"  
The teenager laughs:  
"But no one has no siblings!"  
The fish man looks glad, but replies seriously:  
"He doesn't. He killed them all…"  
The teenager looks in the void for a moment, with his mouth open, then shouts:  
"Oh…Then he wants to kill YO-"  
The bitter man is already gone, but he remembers it now:  
"It's you, then…"  
He stands up, still for a moment, then turns in the direction the man is gone and goes on shouting:  
"CAN'T YOU GO TO KONOHA AT LEAST? You can't let him go with that – Orochimaru – and by the way"  
He turns angrily to the blond guy, who looks him like saying 'you. noob. you. dare?', and says:  
"You didn't answer me! Are you with Orochimaru?"  
"HE – was – with – US. No. We are against him".  
"Huh. So he is his brother…"


	3. Won't See What Might Have Been

The blond guy doesn't reply, and goes to a hole in the wall – call it a door – to call someone.  
That someone walks out the 'door', in the 'room'.  
The teenager looks at him interested; since he seems a guy, but he's really female-like.  
He's older than him, around 20.  
His eyes are blue – but look blacker than the bitter man's ones.  
His hair is – that's strange – like white – but shines – like a pearl does, yes.  
Like soap bubbles do.  
He's beautiful, yes – but yet so childish, something like he isn't totally a man.  
He brings food – for two.  
The teenager shouts "Yay!"  
The guy puts a bowl of ramen in his hands and goes to sit down near the blond one, who asks:  
"How's going?"  
No answer, but the other smiles.  
In the whole evening, he was going to say a single thing:  
"I go".  
In all that time, the teenager stays sitting on the ground and thinks.  
He thinks about many things – you know, your farewell to the world.  
And he also thinks that he can't accept the fact of disappearing, evanishing, that it is all ended.  
The blond guy and the other, from time to time, go on with their argument.  
Art here, art there, mine is art yours isn't, no mine is yours is shit, et cetera.  
The teenager doesn't listen.  
In some moment in the evening, the white-haired guy stands up and goes back to the 'room'.  
The teenager hears three or four dull thumps, then silence. After half an hour the guy returns, looking completely relaxed – but in the same time, alert.  
The fish-man asks the teenager:  
"Hey, Jinchuuriki. Why so silent?"  
"Mh. Nothing. How old are you?"  
"Baby, you can't just ask people how old they are."  
The teenager laughs:  
"All right – what's your name?"  
"…Huh, yes, you never met me. Kisame … Kisame."  
"Naruto! Pleased to – ehr - ok"  
The fish man says:  
"Ha ha ha"  
Actually, from his face, you can't really tell that he smiles. He goes on:  
"You know his brother, so. I thought they were all dead"  
"… He's going mad about it. He wants to kill him, totally. I'm really afraid he goes to that scoundrel – I want him to stay at home…safe. Quiet. … Free …"  
"Isn't he free? You aren't"  
"I'll die. I will be free from everything. He will still have his hatred – twice! He will hate him for having killed me!"  
The fish man doesn't speak.  
He looks astray, then turns back and tells him:  
"You know, it's not for you. It's to take out the demon. You'll die, it's helpless. I am – huh – you're funny…"  
"You're sorry? Then why do you do it? Do you obey someone?"  
The fish man doesn't answer, again.  
He stands up, walks to Naruto and sits down beside him, patting him on the head.  
"You're a good guy. I'm sorry – I'm just sorry that one like you must die, little"  
Naruto smiles.  
"… Kisame … I'm sorry the same. You did something to get at this point, all right – but you have no way out of this shit now. You understand? Sasuke has. I don't want him to become a criminal – oh, no hard feelings…"  
Kisame reflects for some moments and then states:  
"It's wrong to be a criminal. It won't become right because I am".  
Naruto stays silent, and sighs. Then:  
"Do I sleep here?"  
"Here where you are. We must watch you. I wonder, where this man is gone…"  
"It's gone!"  
- the bitter man, totally angry, walks in the room nearly shouting:  
"It's gone, shit! He's dead. Now we've to wait for another!"  
Passing by the teenager and Kisame, he adds:  
"You still – give him K.O.! I don't want this Chihuahua to pall me again!"  
The fish man, kind of smiling, fires back:  
"You're upset, Itachi. I thought this wasn't even possible…"  
The teenager, too, opens the mouth – the bitter man goes on:  
"I'm angry, Kisame. I'm totally fucking angry. And you don't dare say a word! You don't need your skin to be useful!"  
Naruto shuts up and stares at him paralyzed.  
Itachi turns around and sits down, near the place he was before. Kisame asks him:  
"Why that? Something's wrong?"  
Itachi doesn't even answer, but he sighs and looks in the direction he came from.  
The exit, to say. Kisame tells him:  
"If you have to go, go, we don't need you for this thing…"  
Itachi stands up again and walks away, disappearing in some vault in the cave.

Naruto says:  
"What's up? I guess that's because of Sasuke… he's angry – "  
"Angry. He's always angry. It's years I know him, and he's always been angry. The strange thing is that this time he SHOWS IT. You were even able to make him think of smiling…"  
"I think I'm lying down. Do you mind?"  
"No, never mind".  
"You don't sleep?"  
"I have to watch ov- to watch you".  
The blond guy is playing with the white-haired one's hair.  
The puppet-like one is gone away.  
The white haired looks up, with no motion, like he was completely fed up – Naruto thinks he did notice it also before – when he walked out of the room, he was like – high.  
Too relaxed, like he was drunk.  
But he moves perfectly – he is perfectly aware of what happens around him.  
But he still looks that much relaxed.  
The blond guy pulls a strand of his hair and he suddenly laughs – laughs, helplessly.  
He really seems high.  
There is some kind of drug that does this?  
He is completely dressed.  
He wears tights covering all the body – like Kakashi does – but these are mimetic, military green colored.  
His shoes too, aren't that civilian-looking; black leather boots, they seem waterproof.  
The outsoles are studded with four metal plates per foot.  
These shoes look violent.  
But he doesn't, he's there laughing and, how could he actually be a soldier?  
Ok he's a teenager, but Naruto knows enough about world things to picture the way this half-female would be handled, in an all-males army.  
Then the white haired one stands up, looks the blond guy and says "I go".  
The other waits a second and then follows him.


	4. Most Grievous Fault: My Rose

Itachi comes back the next day. As soon as he walks in he says:  
"We found one, Kisame come on."  
Kisame stands up, looking at Naruto, and replies:  
"And who stays…"  
"DEIDARAAA!"  
The blond guy runs out of the room, still putting his robe on:  
"I'M COMING! What's up?"  
Itachi neither looks at him. Kisame laughs. Itachi answers, nodding in Naruto's direction:  
"Look over him. C'mon, you."  
He grabs Naruto's shirt again and pulls him through another hole in the wall, throwing him down in an empty 'room'.  
He nods to Deidara, 'follow', and so the blondie does.  
The room is completely empty, and he leans against the wall.  
Itachi grabs Naruto's shirt again and pushes him down, to sit on the ground.  
Then he tells him to stay there, be still and be quiet.  
"Say a word and I'll cut your throat."  
Deidara asks Itachi:  
"Oh. Right. You're going?"  
"Yeah. Look at him, strictly. He mustn't move from here. The less he talks, the better it is."  
"But we'll talk"  
"You understand."  
Kisame is left out of the room, there are only those three.  
Itachi looks Deidara in eyes for a second, Deidara stays still and his face looks like 'I must understand something'.  
Then he nods; he puts a finger on Itachi's forehead and stays there for a minute.  
Then Naruto sees Itachi and Deidara exchange appearances.  
Itachi becomes Deidara, and Deidara becomes Itachi.  
Deidara/Itachi says:  
"Play it well. Tell Kisame too after, but then shut up. I'm going against orders."  
Itachi/Deidara laughs, pats Naruto's head and says, going out:  
"All right. I don't give a fuck, and I'll get fun going out of here."  
He leaves with Kisame, and Naruto still doesn't dare saying a word.  
He watches Deidara/Itachi – or well, Itachi – waiting for the others to go, and then regaining his normal appearance.  
Itachi sits down near him, constantly glancing the hole, never looking at him. Naruto asks:  
"No chairs in here, huh?"  
"No time to find them, huh?"  
"… All right. You …"  
"Shut your motherfucking hole up".  
Naruto gets a bit angry.  
Okay everything, but you can't just tell people 'Shut your motherfucking hole up' and expect that they don't say a word.  
"I get –"  
"SHUT. YOUR. MOTHER. FUCKING. HOLE. DOWN."  
From up to down – he is getting really upset.  
Naruto nods, thinking 'I'm not surprised he killed them all. If the whole family was this asshole... I wonder if Sasuke will become like this when he grows up. And by the way, the blond guy slept with the white-haired one? What's going on-'  
Just to be sure, he moves a little bit away from Itachi. You can never tell.  
Itachi looks at him, looks away, sighs and does – facepalm. He mumbles:  
"Teenagers…"

A voice two rooms afar soars singing.  
It is the white-haired guy, surely. He goes on singing while Itachi talks:  
'_New blood joins this earth - and quickly is subdued, through constant pained disgrace - the young boy learns their rules'__  
_"I talk. I told you. You shut up and listen. All I'm going to say is true. All I'm going to say – you must go out there and tell Sasuke. All right?"  
"If I go out in time – WAIT – I go out?"  
'_With time the child draws in, this whipping boy done wrong; deprived of all his thoughts, the young man struggles on'__  
_"Hush. I fucking told you twice. Orochimaru wants to use Sasuke to reincarnate, as far as I can tell. This means he'll actually die. You go out there and defend him – I'll think about me."  
"I defend him? But he is really stronger-!"  
"I TOLD YOU – FUCKING – SHUT UP!"  
- roars the other. Naruto nods.  
'_He's known – a vow unto his own, that never from this day his will they'll take away… what I've felt, what I've known'__  
_"Our clan wanted to make a putsch. I had to stop them. I was an Anbu – don't ask, I was – and I knew it all.  
'_Never shined through in what I've shown. Never be, never see, won't see what might have been'__  
_The Anbus knew something, but they didn't order me to do it. I did because my family wanted to use Sasuke – DON'T."  
'_Never free, never me; so I dub thee, Unforgiven'__  
_Naruto puts a hand on his own mouth and nods again.  
'_He tries to please them all, this bitter man he is –throughout his life the same'__  
_"He had to be killed by an Anbu. This was the trigger they planned, to begin their putsch. Ok?"  
'_He's battled constantly'__  
_Naruto nods.  
'_This fight he cannot win. A tired man they see no longer cares – the old man then prepares to die regretfully'__  
_"I always wanted to protect him. Now I won't let him become a Nukenin on my fault. You have to tell him these things."  
'_That old man here is me…'__  
_Naruto nods.  
'_So I dub thee, Unforgiven_…'  
"I will be killed as soon as they find I'll let you go – you alri"  
"Come to Konoha! …"  
'_You labeled me, I'll label you…'__  
_Itachi looks at him, baffled.  
'_So I dub thee, Unforgiven…'_


	5. To Please Them All: This Bitter Man

Naruto goes on:  
"If you explain it all – the other Anbus will back you up, I'll tell Kakashi and the Ero-Sennin…"  
"You make it easy. No, I won't. I won't come back. Keep Sasuke there. Once you go out of the Leaf, in that way, you'll never come back. Defend him."  
He stands up, grabs Naruto's arm and leads him out of the room – but someone blocks them.  
It's a guy with a mask – he grabs Naruto:  
"No way, Itachi. Good feelings, but he's mine"  
"Tobi? You? Oh, no way."  
The masked man turns to look on his back and says:  
"See? Told you! He's betraying you!"  
There are other people out there – nor Kisame, nor the blond guy, only the puppet-like one who attacks Itachi and Naruto, with the others –  
And the masked one shouts at another man:  
"Get the demon!"  
This one runs to Naruto, tries to get him in some sort of a jar –  
Then the white-haired guy gets in between, running, he stands before Naruto shielding him. Tobi comments:  
"Oh, don't care! I'll kill him and free the demon the same!"  
Some shot – he fired some shot, some powerful ball of shiny stuff –  
But the white-haired guy shields Naruto, and something – two things – appear fluttering in the air –  
One is on Itachi, and is like a giant skeleton –  
The other is all dark red – like blood – it looks like a human but has wings –  
He opens them around Naruto – who's aghast – that figure is covered with – 'LINES? What?'  
When it gets blown, the figure smiles, in the end it laughs –  
Then Itachi's skeleton gets the man and kills him, or well, Naruto thinks it kills him - Itachi shouts:  
"GO OUT!"  
And so Naruto does.  
But he wants to take the white-haired guy with him – it's obvious he was a prisoner there, then Naruto runs, runs –  
But right before the cave, like 100 meters away, there are people – he knows –  
Shikamaru – KAKASHI! He shouts to him:  
"Sasuke? Where's Sasuke?"

"Well… I had to fight with him since he wanted to kill Jiraya…for letting them kidnap you…so, he's in hospital…"  
He looks at the guy, unconscious, in Naruto's arms and asks:  
"Who is he?"  
"I don't know. He just saved my life. Kakashi, let's go away – or well, no, well NO"  
A voice, a known voice from the cave echoes:  
"I TOLD YOU TO GO!"  
"How can you kno - right, the Sharingan – ITACHI!"  
Right now, some rumble shakes the whole place – the ground, the cave, the forest – someone shouts:  
"Get away! It's exploding!"  
Naruto looks up, instinctively, and sees a big bird flying over them – and a voice he knows, roaring – the blond guy!  
Naruto screams at Deidara:  
"SAVE HIM!"  
Kakashi answers in his place:  
"You idiot! They saw us! Run, you, run like fuck!"  
They all run, but Naruto stops to look up again – and Deidara sees the white-haired guy in his arms – brings two fingers on his own forehead, tips, and waves the hand to Naruto.  
Then he turns to the cave, throwing bombs like a shrapnel and roaring:  
"ITACHI!"  
While they run, Naruto pants:  
"I have to tell Sasuke … I have to tell him …"  
Kakashi replies:  
"He's under induced coma now…you'll have to wait. First, we're gonna look at this guy – his hair"  
Once in Konoha, ok?  
The guy is brought in the hospital, doctors says he's alright, but then someone thinks of washing him – and Naruto thinks he'll always remember Kakashi crying like an idiot and punching the wall.  
"What's up? What's up then?"  
"Leave it…never mind. Things that we grown-up must know"  
He turns abruptly to the other side and screams at a doctor:  
"AND NEVER LET SASUKE KNOW IT!"  
Naruto asks him:  
"He's awake?"  
"Oh, yes he is – I forgot – excuse me…"  
Naruto runs to Sasuke's room, without even answering.


	6. Phase Two: The Second Twin: If

"I got to tell you – I got to tell you – I met Itachi"  
"YOU MET HIM? HE WANTED TO KILL YOU! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD! DEAD! AND I…"  
"And I thought you were gone with that Orochimaru"  
"Actually I think I'll go. I have to find –"  
"NO NO NO listen to me – he told me everything – I KNOW IT ALL! It's not him, it's not his fault!"  
Sasuke laughs:  
"WHAT? You believed this? Of course he tried to deceive you -"  
"He has let me escape.  
To come here and prevent you from becoming 'a criminal on his fault' like he said.  
If they haven't killed him now, he still isn't having a happy life.  
Ok? This is all true, Sasuke.  
Listen to me.  
And I even think that that Orochimaru knows it all.  
HE'S trying to deceive YOU"  
Sasuke is wordless. Then he ends up saying:  
"Ok, tell me. I listen"  
To report him everything, Naruto spends some two hours.  
Sasuke doesn't simply believe in any words he says – he has to repeat it thrice before Sasuke gets it.  
It is all so strange.  
The worst fact is that Sasuke was so little, he doesn't remember anything – and of course he didn't know the same.  
In the end he just summarizes the matter thus:  
"I won't go to Orochimaru. It's useless now. So I don't have to kill him?"  
"If he's still alive. I don't know if that blond guy managed to save him…"  
While he was speaking, before, something happened out of the room – they heard a kerfuffle which lasted kind of half an hour – someone screaming and glass breaking.  
In the end Kakashi enters the room – and leans against the door. Naruto asks him:  
"The guy…?"  
"He's dead."  
"WHAT?"  
"I'll tell you later. Or well, don't care. He was ill. That's why he shielded you – he'd die the same. How are you?"  
Sasuke answers:  
"It's alright, NOW. I'm not going with Orochimaru anymore. And then, I was SO afraid, SO AFRAID you were dead…"  
"You're really similar, you two. But you use normal voice tones…he's colder than you. He asked me 'How can Sasuke stand you?' And then I answered 'You're really like him!' "  
Sasuke laughs. Naruto goes on:  
"And I even told him that he's 'Cold as shit' like you! And –"  
"What am I?"  
"It IS actually TRUE!"  
Naruto laughs. Sasuke laughs. Kakashi smiles. Then Sasuke turns suddenly serious and asks Naruto:  
"You think he survived?"  
Naruto is voiceless, for some moments, then he smiles and says:  
"He's UCHIHA fucking ITACHI, Sasuke! Of course he's survived!"

Naruto waits for Sasuke to sleep, then brings Kakashi out of the room and wants a complete report of what happened to the guy.  
Kakashi doesn't want him to know, but after he swears that he 'ABSOLUTELY WON'T TELL SASUKE', Kakashi ends up telling him it all.  
"He was a self injurer"  
Naruto's face meant: 'WHAT?'  
"He was addicted to self-injury.  
I never saw something like that.  
The psychologists here say it's a thing we only saw in soldiers coming back from a serious war, until now.  
His addiction was more powerful that the possession of Orochimaru.  
It is even mightier that the possession of a demon.  
We think that we wouldn't have been able to free him, neither with an exorcise, if we were to.  
However, he freed himself alone.  
That something you saw, the red figure, was the addiction – but once he put it out and left it there, he was without it.  
He was completely gone mad.  
He tried to kill himself and stopped in the last moment – he couldn't accept it.  
In the end, he managed to – jumping through the window"  
Naruto looks at the top of the tree right before him – they are on 3rd floor.  
"I never heard of something like that. Wait, but you're afraid Sasuke – oh, he could, in truth, BEFORE. Now he has no reason to. We discovered – I discovered – or well, Itachi told me – come with me, I'll explain you"  
Another pair of hours later, when it is already full evening, Kakashi has listened to it all and now replies:  
"I'll check whatever I can. We'll gather information – if this is the truth, Itachi must be cancelled from the Nukenin list.  
All right? You stay beside Sasuke. He needs you, now. I hope Itachi's still alive! I'd never say I could think this…"  
"But, think, if he didn't get me…oh, well, where's Jiraya?"  
"In this hospital. Sasuke hurt him a bit…"  
Kakashi laughs.  
"He was TOTALLY angry – I wondered, because he made me remember of a person – yeah – you never known, actually – but she must look more like you rather than him.  
I think you've influenced him a lot, you know? Sometimes he acts and behaves like you – just like in this case. He was TOTALLY angry. He looked more like a tiger than a fox – just like your mother did…"  
"MY MOTHER?... You KNEW my mother - WAIT"  
"What? Wait wha- OH NO! NO NO no"  
He laughs while repeating 'NO' in a loop.  
"No, I fucking would have told you if I was – no, it was him!"  
He points his finger, somewhere out of the window.  
"He is – was – your father"  
"THE FOURTH HOKAGE?"  
"Yeeah. If only Sasuke knew it, he would SO envy you…"  
And Kakashi laughs again. Naruto, serious, returns:  
"Who rules the Akatsuki?"  
Kakashi looks at him, baffled.


End file.
